Halloween II (2009) - 4/10
There's a part in this movie when a character finds his teenage daughter lying dead and naked in a bathroom, splattered with blood. When he drops to his knees, the music suddenly takes a lighter, sorrowful tone. And I rolled my eyes.
I rolled my eyes because the problem with this attempt at harrowing drama is the same problem with Rob Zombie's attempt at horror (in this film, and his others). It's also the problem with any "horror" film like this, and there are plenty. In a movie like this, drama equates to making actors weep to sad music, the same way "horror" equates to forcing audiences to watch graphic, grisly violence. I have nothing against gore. But it shows a Director's limitations when it's obvious they can't get around the fact that gore isn't horror. And you can't make a movie about uninteresting teenage characters with potty mouths (for the sake of having potty mouths) and expect people to care when they get mutilated.
Rob Zombie is not a director I dislike. I really enjoyed The Devil's Rejects, and the fact that it wasn't a horror/slasher flick was probably a big factor there. I was bored by his first film, and in regards to the unnecessary Halloween remake he did before this remake sequel...I was one of those people that said, "Yeah it wasn't amazing, but at least he made something better than all the sequels." Well, for this one all I can say is that you'll like it if you liked...say, Halloween 6. I was actually surprised here...I mean, the guy had a shot to really take the character and do his own thing. His "vision", as he would say in the interviews I read, where he talked about this one. Well, apparently his vision was to do what the sequels did. Albeit with a better soundtrack, better gore, and better actors (Malcom McDowell and Brad Dourif are in this movie. They don't need to be, because they are given about as much to do as any F-list replacement could have). But we've had, what twenty sequels already? Sequels to a film that spawned a whole genre of repetitiveness knock-offs with their own set of twenty-something sequels.
Wow, I wrote a lot about this one. I'll just say this. The original Halloween was scary and it did not spill a drop of blood. Think about that nu-Horror makers.